Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Our unexpected night visitor, a rat that ate through our bedroom screen door, led us to look for a better rat trap. Our search resulted in a high-tech, battery-poweredRat Trapthat zaps rodents rather than crushing them. The
device works because of a new type of lithium battery that reviewers are saying
kills tons of rats in their barns and farms before needing to be replaced.

The latest technology of disposable AA Lithium Batteries last 9 times longer than previous versions. These batteries no
longer contain cadmium so they are also less toxic than the first generation of lithium batteries. We are excited about this new technology because we think it could make Hawaii energy independent.

Why?

Hawaii’s perpetual sunshine is great for getting electricity
from solar panels, but the problem is how to store all the electricity produced
during daylight for use after the sun goes down. When we had a solar panel
in Hilo, the sunlight filled the battery before lunch. The rest of the day was wasted
electricity production.

If rechargeable car batteries could store 10 times more
electricity than they do now, it would solve the problem. Electric cars batteries would provide weeks of driving
instead of hours and big energy users like data storage farms, bakeries, and
other manufacturing could become viable in Hawaii with large amounts of electricity
stored from low cost solar power. A power company in Oregon istesting a giant new type of lithium batteryto help stabilize their
local power grid.

When these new types of batteries become more widely available, Hawaii
residents will be able to generate more low cost solar power and the island’s money
spent on imported oil could instead be used to improve the land and everyone’s
quality of life.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Bread is
expensive in Hawaii and often hard to find fresh, so it was easy to note that my
gout attacks occurred after eating a lot of bread. When researching the
relationship between wheat and gout in November 2012, we could find no evidence that wheat caused gout, but we decided to try a wheat free diet anyway. Though many people report
immediate weight loss on a wheat free diet, we both put on 10 lbs. The wonderful
upside has been no gout attacks and the swelling and inflammation I usually have in my feet is gone. The spaces between my toes, where I usually get gout, is
now much smaller as are the joints in my fingers.

Though gluten
intolerance is often seen as a digestive problem, eating wheat can also
cause joint inflammation, skin problems, and respiratory distress without a
person having digestive symptoms. Dr. Kenneth Fine, a researcher at Entero Lab, uses stool samples, rather than blood tests, to detect antibodies in
the digestive tract from a reaction to gliadin. His research has found
that 35% of Americans cannot tolerate wheat and more than 80% have genes types
that are more likely to have problems with wheat.

Instead of
wheat pasta, we now eat
brown rice pasta. We also replaced wheat tortillas, bread, and pancakes
with our own dough consisting of rice flour and ground flax. Ground flax
makes dough easier to roll out, so we don’t have to use additives like guar gum
or xantham gum. We use almond flour and coconut flour to make cookies and pie
crusts. (We use maple syrup and fruit as sweeteners.) We also add green pea and
buckwheat (which is not wheat in spite of its name) flours, which are actually
fruits, in our tortilla and pancake dough.

The
wheat-free diet is challenging as one must totally avoid wheat because the
immune response to the gliadin protein can last up to 6 months each time wheat
is consumed. It took us about 6 months for our bread craving to stop and we
are just starting to feel that a wheat-free diet is worth all the
trouble. We have found wheat in all sorts of products, even some yogurts and cheeses. We cut back on our almond flour and nut
consumption to get back down to the weight we were before we started the
no-wheat diet.

From a gout
perspective, getting rid of wheat has been wonderful. For the first time
since I can remember, my feet and toes are not swollen. Our skin has
changed remarkably; it looks younger and tauter. Our hair looks glossier,
but that may be just from eating so much flax. Experiences of other
50-something guys is that it takes 4 years to get the ultimate benefit of a
flat stomach. Though our bellies have shrunk, we still have 10 more pounds
to lose to gain the full benefit of being wheat-free.

Friday, July 12, 2013

When
we first moved to the Kohala plains near Kawaihae Bay on Hawaii Island, our
friends warned us about the fierce winds that blow constantly. They
claimed the sparse population along parts of the Kohala coast is partly from
the neverending wind.
We have lived in windy places before, on the mountains of Colorado and the plains of East Texas, so we were not worried about it. Actually we were looking forward to some
wind after living in Kailua Kona under the shadow of Hualalai Volcano which
blocks the trade winds.

It
turns out that there are often months between the strongwinds in Kohala and much of the time it
is only mildly breezy or completely still. However, when the famous winds
start to blow, they are indeed unique. They start up in an instant; one second
it is calm and the next second there is a 45 mile an hour gale that can last a
week or two. Sometimes it is a steady wind and other times there are
ferocious gusts that sound like a hurricane. But unlike a hurricane, the
winds are dry and they actually lower the humidity. These fierce winds are
called mumuku.

Captain
Vancouver, who visited Hawaii Island in 1793, mentioned the dangers of the mumuku
winds to ships in Kawaihae Bay. The mumuku rush furiously down the
valley between Kohala and Mauna Kea mountains. They are apparently
foretold by an illuminated streak in the sky which can only be seen
inland in Waimea, where it is said the mumuku winds originate.

We
were almost knocked down by the strong gusts of wind this winter which feel like
a jet engine blast. The mumuku are without a doubt the
strongest gusts of wind we have ever experienced. Though we enjoy being
tossed around and feeling the incredible power of the wind now and then, we have
learned to have great respect for these Kohala winds. On mumuku days we change the route of our
daily walk to avoid being killed by flying coconuts or huge tree branches
crashing down on us. We have seen trees split into pieces by the wind,
branches strewn on the ground, and waves whipped into a frenzy. Driving
on the Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway can be dangerous in these ferocious winds and
we can’t even imagine how a motorcycle or bicycle can handle the
gusts.

The
Hawaiian word for wind is makani, but the Hawaiians had unique names to
distinguish the different types of winds and their locality on the
island. Ulumano are the strong southeastern winds in Ka’u and
Puna. ‘Alahonua are the light breezes in Hilo. Naulu is
the sea breeze that brings sudden rain to Kohala and Apa’apa’a are the
strong winds that parch Kohala.

Having
lived in Hilo and Kona, and now Kohala, we can attest to the dramatic
differences in the winds in each place. Living on Hawaii Island in the
summer without air conditioning makes any sudden breezes an incredible delight
and we have come to enjoy the mumuku
when they arrive.